It's encouraging, really. Republicans in the US are displaying a growing inability to suspend disbelief. They convinced themselves that Sarah Palin was The Answer for quite a few years. They thought the Tea Party was The Answer for a much briefer time. Mitt Romney was The Answer for a couple of months, his running mate Paul Ryan lasted a couple of weeks and Clint Eastwood, the thrilling mystery guest at this week's Republican Convention, remained the man who could inspire a turning point – until he was several paragraphs into his speech.

Eastwood interrogated an imaginary Barack Obama about his inability to solve problems caused by the last Republican government, including a failure to check with the Russians before invading Afghanistan or deal with the nation's 23 million unemployed. It was as if Eastwood had commissioned Stewart Lee to write his speech, and every phrase had to be assumed to be dripping with irony.

Obviously, US politics being as weird as they are, none of this guarantees Obama will secure a second term. After all, there's as yet no proof Republicans are unable to suspend disbelief for the three seconds it takes to vote.